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I am the dojo cho of a little aikido club in Esslingen, Germany (near Stuttgart) and I am writing to you because we need help in saving our beloved dojo! Our club is an open style dojo with teachers from differents styles teaching and working together and currently we have about 150 members (about 50 kids).

Our dojo is located in all old, historic hall in Berkheim, near Stuttgart (Germany). Unfortunately, the city of Esslingen is about to sell this hall to a big company, who wants to tear it down and build a paking lot instead.

Our club is now trying to save our beloved hall and dojo by buying the premises ourselves. The decision as to who gets it in the end will be a political one and we are hoping to get your support in our cause!

If you would like to help us in saving our place, you can do one (or all ) of the following:

- Sign our online petition (on the starting page of our dojos website: http://www.aikido-esslingen.de/) and maybe even leave a comment as to why an aikido dojo has more value for the community than a parking lot
(the petition is in German, but it is very easy to fill in, the boxes are first name, last name, city, country, email address).

We need as many votes as possible, so we would be really grateful for everyone who is willing to spend two minutes to help us!

"The Aikido dojo (school) is a good asset to the community. It is a place for learning to resolve conflict peacefully, for training in a disciplined and culturally rich martial art, for fitness and health, and socializing with other positive, thoughtful people on a path of personal transformation. Please do not destroy such a beautiful place."

Would be a crying shame if such a lovely building was torn down in favor of a parking lot.
Having such a great place for a dojo of this size and with such an open idealistic approach is something that no politician or businessman should be allowed to destroy.

If you decide to hold a protest seminar I will be happy to attend - either to practice or to teach a lesson on Nishio Aikido.

Sonja, I'm so sorry that you've lost your beautiful space. That's got to be a major blow to your martial arts community. I hope that your dojo will remain as a strong and committed dojo, wherever you find yourselves training.

I'm really sorry to read that!
Some years ago I remember there was a lead article in DER SPIEGEL on conservation of historical substance in Germany, and the essence of the article was that investment in new construction projects (= demolition of historical buildings) after the second world war led to more destruction than all bombs of WWII together. So there's a new contribution to destruction by the city of Esslingen :-(

Dear Sonja
So sorry to see that you lost your beautful dojo - it may not all be bad.

Some years back I had a very good dojo - 30/40 adults and about 40 kids. The facility employed a new manager who turned the place upside down - we were a casualty and had to leave.
My students spent money in the bar after training, so they did rather well out of us.
A month later the `new super manager ` stole £48,000 - emptied the bar slot machines and took all the champagne and spirits from the celler.

We received a call from the manager of another centre offering us a much better hall and we have been there until last November when we moved to a newly built facility.
Have faith.